https://sputnikglobe.com/20240102/cloudy-with-a-risk-of-rocket-showers-militias-ramp-up-attacks-on-us-forces-in-iraq-syria-1115943496.html

Cloudy With a Risk of Rocket Showers: Militias Ramp Up Attacks on US Forces in Iraq, Syria

Cloudy With a Risk of Rocket Showers: Militias Ramp Up Attacks on US Forces in Iraq, Syria

Sputnik International

US forces occupying northeastern Syria and American ‘train and assist’ troops in Iraq have been struck over a hundred times over the past two-and-a-half months after militias launched a large-scale campaign of hit and run attacks against them in solidarity with Gaza. At least one US contractor has been killed, with 70 troops suffering injuries.

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Militants in Iraq and Syria rang in the new year by ramping up attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria, with local media reporting on an attempted strike against a US-led coalition base at Erbil Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, while in neighboring Syria, fighters reportedly rained rockets down on a US base on top of the country’s largest gas field.The Erbil attack took place at 9:52 am local time (6:52 am GMT) on Tuesday, and reportedly involved the use of an explosive-laden drone targeting a structure housing US troops. The drone was intercepted, and no casualties or damage was reported. Tuesday’s attack was the third time since Saturday that Erbil has been targeted, with a kamikaze drone reportedly shot down Sunday, and two explosive-laden drones launched at coalition forces the day before that, causing no casualties.A US serviceman seriously injured in a December 25 attack on Erbil was transferred to a hospital in Germany in critical but stable condition last week, with two other troops suffering minor injuries. Those attacks, assumed by CENTCOM to have been launched by Iraqi paramilitary group Kata’ib Hezbollah, prompted the Pentagon to launch its own strikes against three militia targets.In neighboring Syria, the past 24 hours saw US forces at a base on top of the Conoco Gas Field in the Deir ez-Zor countryside come under rocket attack, with a militia coalition known as the "Iraqi Resistance" claiming responsibility and reporting that its rocket barrage “directly hit its target.” A local correspondent reported that at least four rockets struck inside the base, followed by plumes of smoke rising from inside, and US helicopters deployed to the area to search for the perpetrators. CENTCOM has not commented on the Conoco attack or offered any information on whether any casualties or damage were caused.Separately on Tuesday, local media reported that the US base in Green Village, also in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province, had also come under attack by the Islamic Resistance in a drone strike. No further information was provided, and US occupation forces have not commented on the incident.The Pentagon confirmed to reporters late last month that US forces in Iraq and Syria had come under attack over 100 times since October 17 – when regional militias began their campaign against American forces in solidarity with Gaza. This included 46 attacks in Iraq and 55 in Syria, with militants said to have used a combination of kamikaze drones, rockets, mortar, and short-range ballistic missiles. Prominent targets included Iraq’s Al-Asad and Al-Harir air bases, the US garrison in Al-Tanf, Syria, Conoco, the massive al-Omar oil field, and others.The US has responded by to the attacks with air and missile strikes on militia bases designed to deter further strikes, but to no avail, with militias continuing to ramp up their attacks as Israel – a key US ally, continues its campaign in Gaza into the new year.The Gaza crisis has stretched US forces thin across the Middle East. Early Tuesday, Arab-language media reported that missiles launched by Yemen’s Houthi militia attempted to target a US warship in the southern Red Sea, presumably in retribution for US attacks against Houthi boats on Sunday which killed 10 militia fighters on Sunday. The Houthis began a campaign of hijackings as well as drone and missile attacks against commercial ships owned by Israelis or heading to or from the Jewish state in the Red Sea in November, with the Pentagon announcing the creation of a maritime coalition to secure the waterway in December.* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231217/us-plunders-nearly-100-more-trucks-worth-of-syrian-oil-wheat-and-barley-1115646033.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231222/houthi-red-sea-blockade-could-starve-western-war-machine-of-oil-1115751663.html

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why is the us occupying iraq and syria, who is attacking american forces in iraq